Kauaʻi record · KCA-CR-000162
Greater Hawaiian Land Crab
Geograpsus severnsi
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About Greater Hawaiian Land Crab
Greater Hawaiian Land Crab (Geograpsus severnsi) was a large endemic terrestrial crab. Subfossil evidence from Kauaʻi includes coastal dune and cave contexts at Poʻipū, Keālia, Makawehi, and Māhāʻulepū. Research places its extinction after human colonization; the record helps distinguish Hawaiʻi's former land-crab fauna from living ghost crabs.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Geograpsus severnsi
- Common names
- Greater Hawaiian Land Crab · Severn's Land Crab
- Other names
- Hawaiian land crab · land crab · terrestrial crab · Geograpsus land crab · extinct crab
- Family
- Grapsidae
- Order
- Decapoda
- Record type
- species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Documented from Kauaʻi subfossil sites
- Origin
- Endemic (extinct)
- Conservation status
- Extinct
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal description
- Greater Hawaiian Land Crab was an endemic terrestrial crab documented from subfossil sites on Kauaʻi and other Hawaiian islands. It became extinct after human colonization and is included as historical ecology, not as a living beach-crab record.